Mayor Rob Ford came out of his office Thursday afternoon and said he saw he no reason to resign, hours after Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said investigators have recovered a digital video file that depicts Ford and is “consistent with what had been previously described in various media reports.”

Ford said he could not comment on Blair’s announcement because the matter is before the courts. However, Ford has not been charged with any crime.

“I think everybody has seen the allegations against me today. I wish I could come out and defend myself, unfortunately I can’t, ’cause it’s before the court and that’s all I can say right now,” Ford said. “I have no reason to resign, I’m going to go back and return my phone calls, gonna be out doing what the people elected me to do and that’s save taxpayers money and run a great government.”

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Police chief Bill Blair says police have recovered video
• Says video is consistent with earlier media reports about Ford
• Ford friend and alleged drug dealer Alexander Lisi arrested for extortion
• Mayor refuses to comment on court documents
• Ford in close contact with Lisi, calls many times a day, court document revealed
• City Hall staff said Lisi appeared to be mayor’s only close friend
• Ford staffer thought he was using illegal narcotics, Lisi was providing him
• Police were using a pole camera to monitor Lisi’s home
• Police installed a ‘tracking device’ on Lisi’s Range Rover on August 8

Chief Blair also announced that police had on Thursday taken into custody the mayor’s friend, Alexander Lisi, and charged him with extortion. Police said “the accused made extortive efforts to retrieve a recording.”

The police chief added: “As a citizen of Toronto I’m disappointed. It’s an issue of significant public concern.”

Chief Blair said the video was recovered as part of the Project Traveller raids on alleged gang activity in the city’s northwest end this summer.

“I think it’s fair to say the mayor does appear in that video but I’m not going to get into the detail of what activities is depicted in that video,” Chief Blair said in a news conference at a police headquarters.

He said it is “consistent with what had been previously described in various media reports.”

The Toronto Star and Gawker.com reported earlier this year that they saw video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine and making a homophobic slur about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

“The video forms part of the evidence in support of the charge” against Lisi, Chief Blair said, but nothing in the video file warrants a charge against the mayor.

Police did not contact Mayor Ford after Tuesday’s discovery of the video. Investigators have yet to interview the mayor in relation about the video, Chief Blair said. A warrant to search the mayor’s house never been issued, he added.

“We’ve done our job here,” says Chief Blair. He said a second digital file that was “relevant” had also been recovered.

“I have been advised that we are now in possession of a recovered digital video file relevant to the investigations that have been conducted. That file contains video images which appear to be those images which were previously reported in the press, with respect to events that took place, we believe at a house on Windsor Road in Etobicoke.”

The home is the same as where the mayor was pictured with murder victim Anthony Smith.

A number of councillors called for Ford to resign given the allegations.

“At this point, the mayor needs to either step aside or step down,” said Councillor Jaye Robinson, who was kicked off his executive earlier this year after making similar calls.

“Now we know what I was saying 6 months ago — he has personal issues — has been confirmed. But on top of that, he has just lost all his credibility.”

Court documents revealed

Blair made the extraordinary announcement shortly after court documents were released, revealing Ford’s close relationship with Lisi, an alleged drug dealer.

Toronto police assigned one of its most senior detectives to specifically investigate allegations that Ford is captured on a cell phone smoking crack cocaine, according to the documents.

Details of the probe are contained in a lengthy “information to obtain” (ITO) used by police to obtain a search warrant in the case of Alexander Lisi, a friend of the mayor’s who is accused of drug trafficking. A judge ordered portions of the ITO released to media.

“On May 18th, 2013 Detective Sergeant [Gary] Giroux was assigned to investigate the matter brought forth by the Toronto Star and gawker.com and their allegations against Mayor Rob Ford. Specifically to investigate the existence of a cellular phone containing a video of Ford smoking crack cocaine,” the sworn affidavit states.

The massive document includes pictures of Ford interacting with Lisi. The pair would often meet in parking lots and once met in “the woods.” Lisi was under intense police surveillance, the document says, and says Lisi used a number of counter-surveillance techniques to avoid being followed.

On June 18, the affidavit shows, police installed a pole camera “to monitor Lisi’s address,” noting, “the camera can be viewed remotely online on a secure site by authorized officers.”

Payman Aboodowleh, a volunteer football coach at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, where Ford coached the team, told police that Lisi met Ford through him. He told police he was “mad at Lisi because he was fuelling the mayor’s drug abuse,” the document says.

Police were surveilling Lisi from the ground and the air

On June 26, police used officers on the ground and in the air to watch Lisi. He left his house in his Range Rover, drove to Benway Drive and switched cars, leaving in a red convertible Mustang, the document says.

He visited an auto detailing shop, and then went home and moved a heavy backpack from the trunk to his house. He joined someone in a Volvo and went to Richview Cleaners. He left cupping something in his right hand.

Police watched Lisi take a small cooler bag from his garage and put it in the trunk of the Mustang and a white plastic bag in the passenger side. He drove to a parking lot near Centennial Park in Etobicoke and walked to a soccer pitch where he met with Mr. Ford, the document says.

After speaking with Ford, Lisi returned to his car, took the white bag with something in it, added cans of juice to the bag, walked to Mr. Ford’s Cadillac Escalade, opened the door and placed the bag on the centre console.

Lisi then rejoined Ford, who was now walking with a toddler. The toddler was placed in the back seat of Mr. Ford’s SUV. After the two spoke, Ford drove away.

The transaction, in the context of a drug investigation, seemed to concern police, who secretly photographed it and documented it.

The affidavit describes an elaborate game of cat and mouse in mid-July between Lisi and officers who police had hired to, in the affidavit’s term, “surviel” (sic) him. The police observe Lisi, in his driveway, switching cars, fetching cars, adding new licence plates to cars. At one point, they note that, “Lisi was pulled to the curb where it appeared as thought he was watching the traffic as it drove by him; this location is just north of Mayor Ford’s residence…. Lisi was misplaced in the area of Edenbridge Drive and Knoll drive.”

The document also alleges that Ford visited an Esso gas station and when Ford was inside, Lisi placed an envelope inside the mayor’s vehicle.

On Aug. 14, police say Lisi was seen coming and going from his home on numerous occasions. Around 7 p.m., he drove to Centennial Park, where he met up with Mayor Ford, who was watching his child’s soccer game.

“The two met for almost an hour, at times the conversations appeared to be somewhat heated (arms flailing, pointing fingers etc.),” the ITO states. “Lisi at one point gave Mayor Ford his cellular phone to look at; the Mayor did so and handed it back to Lisi after a few seconds.”

On Aug. 18, Lisi was observed leaving his home, eventually making his way to the Richview Cleaners and later meeting with Mayor Ford outside the Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy. Police believe Mayor Ford, Lisi or another man who came to the academy with Lisi figured out they were under surveillance, and all three men quickly left the area.

“Mayor Ford and Lisi then circled the neighbourhood for a short time,” the ITO states.

Two days later, on Aug. 20, Lisi parked by the mayor’s home on Edenbridge Drive in Etobicoke, according to police surveillance notes. Investigators say Lisi began using his cellphone, then walked through the wooded area behind Mayor Ford’s house; about an hour later he walked down the mayor’s driveway.

On Aug. 21, Lisi had another brief phone call with the Deco Adhesives number, and later that day, Mayor Ford, Lisi and another man were observed at the Steak Queen Restaurant on Rexdale Boulevard.

“All three appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and or drug but not to the state of impairment,” the ITO states.

“Mayor Ford appeared disheveled with a large sweat stain circling his stomach, sweating profusely from his forehead, his eyes were squinting as he walked, his suit jacket was wrinkled and he wore it without a tie. He was observed leaving with what appeared to be 3 Styrofoam food containers in bags.”

After their meal, the trio stopped by the Esso gas station near Mayor Ford’s home to pick up coca-cola and cigarettes; they also allegedly attempted to pick up a pack of “white Zig Zags,” rolling papers used for marijuana, but the store did not have any.

The ITO also confirms that a surveillance aircraft was utilized as part of the Project Brazen 2 investigation, but police scaled back that part of the probe when residents began to complain about the plane overhead.

On Aug. 22, police received a call from Ford staffer Sheila Paxton indicating that the mayor had noticed a vehicle following him for a week and a half, and he was “very concerned.” The mayor’s chief of staff, Earl Provost, also made inquiries with police about the vehicle following Mayor Ford, but police declined to provide the vehicle’s registration information, saying it was confidential.

“Provost further advised that Mayor Ford is getting angry at Provost because he can’t give him what he wants,” the ITO states.

A police note on the ITO reads as follows: “I believe that the above attempts by Provost to obtain registration details for Mayor Ford clearly indicate that Mayor Ford is utilizing his position and the powers of the Office of the Mayor, to obtain information not available to regular citizens.”

Constant phone calls between Ford and Lisi

In July, police obtained a “production order” which allowed it to view a list of the telephone calls that Lisi made on his Rogers cell phone with a number of people, including Mayor Ford, Richview Cleaners, Fabio Basso, Liban Sayad and three people in the mayor’s office: Brooks Barnett, Thomas Beyer and Isaac Ransom.

In March, 2013, Mayor Ford called Lisi’s cell phone 44 times. On March 30, Ford called Lisi twice; the same day, Lisi phoned Fabio Basso, a man whose house appeared in a photo of the mayor connected to an alleged crack video, five times.

Police found four numbers associated with Mayor Ford in Lisi’s phone records, including the mayor’s OnStar, cellphone, home line and a fourth number believed to be a second home landline.

Between June 25 and July 19, Mayor Ford called Lisi 27 times, records indicate; 19 of those calls were from the OnStar number in the mayor’s Escalade.

During the same time period, Lisi called the mayor 18 times, but only called his cellphone once — a “dramatic change” from previous phone records, police say.

On July 11, police allege, Lisi placed a package in the mayor’s Escalade at an Esso gas station without speaking to him, after the pair exchanged brief phone calls earlier in the afternoon.

“Lisi can be seen walking around near the Mayor’s Escalade still holding onto the manila envelope,” the ITO states. “Lisi appears to be looking around, possibly scoping out the area. Shortly after this image he walks along the passenger side of the Mayor’s Escalade and walks out of frame… Mayor Ford exits the Esso Station, gets back into his Escalade and exits the parking lot.”

Under a heading called “Project Traveller and the Rob Ford connection”, the police affidavit details surveillance that occurred at 15 Windsor Road, a home “believed to be a “Trap House” (crack house) for the named parties to sell drugs from.”

15 Windsor is believed to be the backdrop of a now infamous photo that shows Mayor Ford with a man who was later murdered [Smith], and two other men who were later arrested. It alleges that surveillance crew observed activity consistent with drug trafficking and that “no known persons” were seen. “There were no arrests or seizures made during this operation.”

Then, large swaths of information are blacked out, but there is a first reference in the document to Lisi, with his address and a brief description of his interactions with Toronto police. A subsequent line states “a unified search query of Mayor Rob Ford does not reveal that his phone was reported stolen.”

Also interviewed by police in the document was Nico Fidani, a former junior member of Ford’s staff. Two detectives spoke with him on June 26, at the police 22 Division station. Much of what he told them is redacted from the document before it was released to the media.

“If the Mayor is obtaining illegal narcotics then it is probably Sandro who is taking him to get them,” Fidani told police, according to the affidavit.

On Aug. 12, police allege, Lisi’s Range Rover was parked in a lot on Royal York Road, and investigating officers discovered the mayor’s Escalade in a nearby parking lot for the Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy. The Escalade is “heavily tinted,” and neither of the two men were seen inside, the ITO says, noting Lisi was seen walking back to his vehicle from the area of the school a short time later.

A day later, on Aug. 13, police say they observed Lisi at home loading a large cooler bag into his Range Rover. Later in the day, he allegedly received a call from a cellphone associated with Deco Adhesive Products; Deco, an Etobicoke company founded by the Ford family. A short time later, the ITO says, Lisi left his home in the Range Rover.

“Lisi travelled to and parked on Westmount Park Road, he parked near a foot path that leads north into Weston Wood Park,” the ITO states, noting Mayor Ford was observed at the same time leaving a local gas station and parking near a footpath that leads south into Weston Wood Park. “Lisi and Mayor Ford eventually met and made their way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour.”

They left separately in their own cars, the ITO says. Police later seized a vodka and juice bottle from the spot where the two had met, and left replacement bottles behind to conceal the fact officers had been there.

Ford refused to answer reporters’ questions about the documents Thursday morning at his home in Etobicoke. He screamed at media to “get off my property.”

The nearly 500-page document was released Thursday morning, one day after Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer found no “principled basis” on which the court should give notice to dozens of named parties.

Several media outlets filed an application to access the massive ITO (information to obtain a search warrant) after police this month raided a west-end dry cleaners, arresting owner Jamshid Bahrami and Lisi, the mayor’s friend and occasional driver.

The document, called an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant, referred to as an ITO, is a lengthy compendium of information used by police to convince a judge to issue a warrant that will allow them to search private property to further a drug investigation.

While not facts proven in court, it is information that officers swear gives them “reasonable and probable grounds to believe” there is evidence of a crime.

This ITO was used by Toronto police to search Lisi’s home at 5 Madill Street, and was sworn before a judice of the peace on Oct. 2 by Detective Constable Ali Nader Khoshbooi.

This ITO is unusually long and detailed for such a document.

For months, police have been investigating the mayor and a number of his associates, including Lisi, as part of Project Brazen 2, an offshoot of the June guns-and-gangs sweep dubbed Project Traveller.

Although it began when Lisi was allegedly caught trying to trade drugs for the mayor’s stolen cellphone, Brazen 2 was far from a simple drug probe. Toronto police put veteran homicide detective Gary Giroux in charge of the sensitive investigation, and cast a blanket of silence over his squad’s work.

Before Wednesday’s ITO release, few details of the project had emerged; there were reports that a Cessna was employed to track the mayor’s movements, and a leaked police document shed some light on Brazen 2’s genesis. The document revealed that police first picked up on Lisi’s name in March — two months before reports of an alleged video showing Mayor Ford smoking a crack pipe — when he was captured on an intercepted communication related to Project Traveller.

“Lisi was heard to be brokering the return of a cellular phone stolen from an associate of his, with a payment of marihuana,” the document states. Although the document does not name the associate, it was allegedly Mayor Ford.

In June, after rounding up dozens of suspected gang members in the Project Traveller sweep, police began conducting surveillance on Lisi and discovered his connection to Mr. Bahrami’s dry cleaning business in Etobicoke. Investigators allege the pair, both charged with drug trafficking, were working together to sell marijuana out of the dry cleaners.

Lisi — who has multiple previous convictions dating back to 2001, including assault and threatening death — has been described by Mayor Ford as a “good guy” who is on the “straight and narrow.” The two are friends, and Lisi, who was angling for a job with the city of Toronto, sometimes drove the mayor around in his Range Rover.

Mayor Ford also wrote a character reference this past June when Lisi was being sentenced for threatening to kill a former girlfriend, touting the accused’s “tact and diplomacy” and lauding him as “an exemplary member of my campaign team.”

One of Lisi’s neighbours said she frequently saw Mayor Ford stop by; he parked at the curb and interacted with Lisi through the window of the car, neighbour Carol Peck said. A report in the Toronto Star said Lisi made “aggressive attempts” to retrieve the alleged crack video after the story broke in May.

In one of his only public responses to the ongoing scandal, Mayor Ford has said he does not smoke crack cocaine, and “I cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist.” He has repeatedly declined to comment on Brazen 2 or on the specifics of the Lisi case, saying the matter was “before the courts.”

Faced Wednesday with the imminent release of the ITO, Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, said only: “I am not even paying attention to all that… Rob is the most honest politician in the country.”